I fully understand that people that are born into a morg family have almost no chance to live outside the cocoon.

But when I am a young man or woman with family and friends outside the cocoon what made me stay in the cult?
Missionaries OK, nice young people whit a message. Than entering the church. All of a sudden your life before the church becomes worthless. Your family and friends are all of a sudden bad people.

No one can tell me that after a while a clear mind must see the gap between the bible and the Mormon teachings. I mean even if a person was not involved in Christianity before but in the church it becomes important. Everyone has a bible and Moses tells the commandments very clear. You shall…. Only on God….. If you wanna know for real and don’t trust the bible, I’ll think there is everywhere a library with a Tenach that you can take a look.

Mormonism is so far off from any teachings in Christianity and even more from the Old Testament.
I wonder why a convert that is more than 20 years old when joined the church can possibly stay in a system that is clearly not Christian and has absolutely no Jewish roots at all, besides some names an pretending.

Sense of purpose and meaning. Real or perceived improvement over former life. Perceived lack of a better alternative. Church friends, church wife, church kids. Tithing invested. Need to be or appear consistent. Hesitation to break a commitment.

And most of all . . .

the underwear! :-)

I guess that the reasons are similar to why people keep hoisting the bible up when it's clearly a ridiculous tome written by ancient men in the bronze age.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.... There's nothing wrong with believing that a magical jewish zombie popped into existence out of nowhere complete with thoughts, desires, and the ability to do and create anything he wants, then decides to create a universe at least 13 billion light years across, then only putting organic life on one planet, and holding the higher primates accountable for actions he knew they would do before he ever created them.

And doesn't it follow logically that this magical being would clone himself, be born on the planet, not reveal anything at all useful or original, allow himself to be nailed to a cross to appease himself for the rules he created as some kind of artificial requirement, EVEN THOUGH there had already been multiple attempts on his life that he ran away from (suspicious for someone whose whole purpose in life was to be killed, but whatever) and then not give one single shred of empirical evidence of his existence, not even one single eyewitness account that he existed at all...

Isn't that totally logical?

But the guy throwing a rock in a hat and seeing visions, THAT'S CRAZY!!

The Mormons threaten you with Outer Darkness.

They threatened my Primary children that if they didn't obey, they would burn at the Second Coming of Christ. (AS IF Christ would do that to little children.)

The Mormons threaten that unless families are "sealed" in the temple, that they will pass by each others as strangers in the hereafter.

My bishop threatened me that if I didn't pay tithing, that I would fail financially, and that my children would become delinquents. (We all are very successful.)

Some people might lose their job, if they leave the Mormon cult.

People lose most of their Mormon friends, when they leave.

You are right, Buddy Joe, the Mormon church is not Christian. It is a cult, invented by the con-man and pervert, Joseph Smith.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2011 10:39AM by forestpal.

Well, I got baptized at 19. Now I'm 20. I haven't attended church for 4-5 months.

I had a strange feeling after my baptism, as I had finally found the only place where I was supposed to belong since the beginning of my life.
I know it's lame, but I blame it on the huge amount of love bombing I got at first.
I felt lonely and thought that our dear Heavenly Father could fix it. That my new Mormon friends could fix it.
Until everyone started to ignore me and I had to introduce myself every damn Sunday to the members of my ward because apparently nobody recognised me.

Also, it all makes sense when you're Italian and feel quite oppressed by the Vatican. Mormon teachings sound perfect to someone like me who has never read the Bible.

As my ex TBM boyfriend once said to me: "Our doctrine says this and that, and it's been REVEALED to us through our amazing prophet Joseph Smith. Catholics suck because they don't have the BOM, nor D&C. I wonder how they make it through? This is the true church of Christ. Others copy us. Also, Jeovah's Witnesses copied our missionaries. Oh, and NEVER, EVER google the church. Doubt is of the devil."

D:



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2011 10:48AM by heytherejules.

Curiosity I guess. When the missionaries came to my home and taught so many things I was at times skeptical, other times I believed, others I was not sure. They would 'testify' to me with all confidence about the truth, about how God could communicate directly with regular people like me and how He communicated with the prophet and the apostles. As I became more involved in church I'd hear people talking about how the Lord literally visits His house, how the temple is the most beautiful place. There were stories from the pulpit about all wonderful things. I wanted to be part of that. I look back and I think it was the hoping and waiting for miracles that kept me in despite all these things that bugged me. And I believed in the BOM.

The pictures of perfect and eternal families was another hope that kept me in and kept me going.

D

but Tommy Monson is Soooooooo Daaaaaamn SEXY!!!

You said "Dictrine". LOL Freudian slip?

Ron

it seems to be like "Sure I'm completely miserable, but the leaders say we are all happy, and I'm still way better for accepting "the gospel" than any non-mormon, no matter if they _seem_ happy."

People get emotionally attached to things. To leave they would admit making a mistake; and wasting time, emotions and money on nothing. That's why some people stay in a casino gambling the last dollar; hoping to win back whatever they already lost so far.

New converts rarely have lots of friends and loving families.
There is almost always some chink in their armor due to tragedies and overwhelming losses, seen or unseen.

The personal attention (love bombing) potential converts get from members, especially successful members, is often exactly what will get them to join.

Unfortunately, few of the converts realize that all this professed love for them is deliberate manipulation.

That realization comes AFTER baptism, when their new friends move on to the next victim.
New converts stay until they understand they've been had and that the morg won't/can't help them.

the only life you know. It's home, family, your social structure, your friends, etc. It's a whole life religion - covers every facet of your life. Sorta like whole grain! :-) It's been promoted as "good for you" so you continue to find the good in the: Good, the Bad, the Ugly, just like the rest of life.

When your religion of choice is wrapped up in your love for your family: husband and children, and relatives and friends, it's difficult to think there is anything else that can beat it.

I have often said that I could never learn, as a convert in my 20's and on, to think like a "Born in the Bed" Mormon, I never totally "got" all of the unspoken undercurrents -- or caught all the "code words" that drove the meanings home.

I still had my two decades of life prior to converting that had developed my common sense, for one thing. So, many times, I was at odds with much of the doctrine/teachings/behavior/etc. But, I was outnumbered, BIG TIME!

So, I tried my best to make sense of all of it, and just "put on a shelf" the rest that didn't add up. Several times, that shelf broke and all of my concerns came tumbling down, but it wasn't until I was in my late 50's that I finally understood the cause of my concern: the core -- Joseph Smith's clever sales job of Golden Plates, translations and the BOM as from God were nothing more than his imaginary creations! Then it dawned on me: Joseph Smith Jr created an American God Myth that is alive and well today with millions of believers- some world wide. Amazing, actually.
But, I could no longer stick with it, once I knew the real story.

Leaving Mormonism has an element of delicate timing. The student must be willing and able to hear the teacher, so to speak. Some do, some never do. Some will always hear Mormonism: "The Gospel" as the only truth they know and the only way they want to live.

It became apparent to me that the religious claims of prophets, deities, saviors, visions,sacred writings, rituals, etc., etc, have always been a matter of belief by faith -- no matter the religion. Mormonism is no different.

Our religious beliefs are predominately determined by the geography of our birth, at least initially. I doubt that more than 15% or so change that belief system in their life time.
Depending on where you were born, your generational, familial influences dictated much of your original belief system.
I think that kind of strong familial, societal influence keeps the majority of people doing the same ingrained rituals for birth, coming of age, marriage and death throughout their lives.

I am at the point that I can appreciate and respect, and enjoy other people's beliefs as an outsider. I don't have to be a believer to respect their rights. It's a very freeing, peaceful choice that I have made.

It fits their personality and beliefs.

Stray Mutt Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It fits their personality and beliefs.


Yes, I did, for a very long time. So did my family and so do members that are relatives from what I have observed.
It's their generational home.

Plain old stupidity.

suckafoo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Plain old stupidity.


Hey! :-) I wasn't stupid for joining. I was trying to solve some problems in my life, and not having much experience, the church looked like a good way. It really did work for me for much of the time. When it quit working for me and I realized it wasn't going to, I had invested a lot and getting out was harder. I *like* that I was able to commit myself and try to make myself better. I'm also glad I realized the church wasn't what I'd hoped and was the wrong thing for me to keep doing.

We drank the koolaid and believed the marketing. Then, we find out the truth. There's a choice to be made and you have to endure a great deal of humiliation, having defended the con to family and friends.

They were right and you were wrong...and will the kids ever trust you again? What about all the hours you made them put in at church. Your teenagers. They were right and you were wrong.

And the little kids LOVE their Sunday School teacher! And what about scouts and, and, and,

Unless you never tell.

It's a choice that's not simple. Maybe seems like one if you are BIC, but leaving as a convert has problems too, just different ones.

My whole extended family shunned me (they were Catholic). When I left Mormonism and went back to Catholicism, nobody believed me. They said I was faking it. "Why?" I asked. "We don't know yet," they said.

Apparently, having a black sheep was very comfortable for some and they didn't want me back.

Anagrammy

@ anagrammy
This makes me really think.

I did not believe in it. I was lucky to have a Grandpa that was always there for me and he was an evangelical Christian. She showed me from my PV times on that this cult is not true and there was absolutely nothing what my father could do against it. Lucky me.

I believe in God, “the God” singular! I am not in any church there is but I study the Bible even the Tenach.
But no one in my family ever listened to me because they think since I am not in any Church I can’t be believe in God.
The bad news is that there is no true church. The good news is that you don’t really need a Church.
The most people don’t understand that God is never in any building or religious group.

nor was anyone able to control anyone else with threats of hell.

I could be wrong, but I like Deepok Chopra's book "The Third Christ" in which he examines the teachings of Jesus which don't sound like him and suggests that the reader can discard those and still be a follower of Jesus.

Anagrammy

i think there's a huge amount of pressure from the mormon leaders to 'friend' somebody.

the convert sees friendliness.

the mormon tells him it's because of the gospel.

the converts accepts that. 'why not' he says.

the mormons come up with dances, chili cook offs, etc.
the convert says...mmhhh...some pretty girls around,free food, etc.

the church must be true then.

An old friend of mine used to say he'd never join the Mormons, because they would call him a "convert." He said it sounded like pervert, and I had to agree. The Mormons have a weird class system:

Utah/Idaho Born In Covenant: Highest Mormon birthright. A famous lineage will put you at the top of this group.

Utah/Idaho Convert: Though not tops by any means, you can laugh at Californian Mormons.

California/Oregon: Born In Covenant: You should be moved up a notch. But that ain't gonna happen.

California/Oregon: Convert: You must be a sucker for punishment.

Cult